Award winning art collector and an astute businessman, Anurag Khanna has been collecting works of art for almost two decades. His collections include pans through various mediums wherein the underlying aspects are politics, gender, feminism, sexuality, minimalism, and abstraction. In a freewheeling chat with Indrojit D. Chaudhuri, he shares how each one of them come together to form emotional stories which Anurag likes to make a part of his life, lend to museums, and enjoys sharing with the public in large.

– Tell us about your collection, what do you like to collect?

I like to collect various things such as video art, films, paintings, sculptures, drawings, etchings, photography etc. The idea is to collect minds and thoughts that resonate with me without medium being a deciding factor among the objects.

– Tell us about your collecting, what do you like to collect?

I like to collect various things from video art, films, paintings, sculptures, drawings, etchings, photography etc. The idea is to collect minds and thoughts that resonate with me without medium being a deciding factory among the objects.

– Why do you collect it?

It makes my life more meaningful and I enjoy the fact that my children are being bought up surrounded by art and culture at different levels. These are fine nuances of life which I think each parent if they enjoy it themselves should introduce them to this world so that they can pick up what they enjoy over time and develop tastes and habits that stay with them for life. The idea to enjoy music, art, dance and everything else is so important in the monetary driven world we live in, we need to sit back, slow down and look at alternative means of pleasures which take us away from being pretentious all the time. When they look and study different minds and their thought processes they are able to think from others point of view and this makes them and me a more humble and down to earth person. I don’t think anything better happened to me in my life than this introduction to art and then the privilege to be able to live with these object which I can enjoy, lend to institutions for others to see and appreciate and then let my children and family be surrounded by this beautiful and painful world.

– What does your collection give you?

Peace of mind, happiness, joy, reason to live and many other things. It makes me even a better businessman in many ways, I am always putting myself in others shoes and trying to look at the world from their point of views, this makes me more of a peoples person, I am more connected to my employees, I like to listen to them and be more approachable and stand when they need me most. When I come back home to be surrounded by these beautiful objects, it takes all my stress away, makes me energised to run the next day to do more and collect more and work every day to make my world and existence a more meaningful thing for me and for many that get associated with me through this habit of collecting, living with and loving art.

– Are you trying to make a new world for yourself?

I don’t think I can make a world for myself as I am not that powerful. I feel blessed that God gives me these opportunities where I can help make my world and for others around me who understand and appreciate this simply “worth living” for.

– What do you think of India’s art community?

Well art and culture has been always part of us for centuries and there is a strong but small community of artists, dealers, collectors, museum goes and many more who are directly and indirectly working to sustain this eco-system for years now. I am most happy about the fact that this is slowly spreading with more people are talking about it, experiencing it and thinking of this idea of living and looking at art. I see it becoming part of our lives for many more in the future which will be very rewarding. In this messy world we live in, this will help make us as human being more humane and more loveable which is so essential in this world full of ego.

– Is it fair to compare India’s art community with that of the west?

Not at all, if we talk about contemporary art we are still developing at each stage and far away from the west when we talk about the market and how it operates and how we have grown mentally to absorb the art we are happy to live around and appreciate. Its all happening but it will take many more years for us to have a broad mind and accept things and not think so much as narrow minded individuals. Its all because we are still tied up in many ways in out society, as more and more of us will travel and meet others and converse out minds will slowly get ready to accept all forms of people and lives and then we will become even more ready to see and appreciate other forms of art. The west will move even more so hopefully we can catch up over time, if not all but some of us at least so that this bridge can be slowly crossed over in both directions.

– What does your family think of your collection?

Well when I started collecting around 18 years ago they used to think I am crazy and do nothing but waste money as everything else in life is essential expect for art. For me this came first after meeting all basics of life…we just thought very differently but overtime they have got used to these objects, appreciate them as well and when they know people come home to see and appreciate and look at them and the people who are walking in are people who come from strong positions of life I think their minds are changing as well. I also live with very strong works which can be graphic and even full of nudity and that I have been slowly introducing this to everyone at home. In 1999 I came back from Paris and bought some prints from the Louvre book shop and framed them and put them in our dining room, they were small and the women in them were nude and my father asked me to remove them. However, over time traveling with me to museums and seeing art in institutions have opened their minds, they are far more accepting then they were 10 years ago.

This interview first appeared in mojarto-an ndtv venture